THE POWER OF YOUR HAND!

THE POWER OF YOUR HAND!

Prov 3:27-28

27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

          If God has blessed you, He has done it so that you might be a blessing to others! Wealth – especially accumulated surplus wealth – is a stewardship. None of it actually belongs to us but has been placed in our hand so that we might partner with God.

          This partnership must be voluntarily entered into. It never satisfies the giver or the recipient when it is forced. The current political idea of the “redistribution of wealth” as a government mandate robs the recipient of his dignity and his motivation while robbing the giver of his freedom. No, it must be a gift from the heart in response to a genuine need.

          In January, 1955 CBS premiered a black and white TV show called The Millionaire. An unseen benefactor named John Beresford Tipton, Jr. directed, Michael Anthony, his executive secretary, to knock on someone’s door and to hand them a cashier’s check for one million dollars. For the next thirty minutes we watched to see how sudden wealth would change the surprised recipient.

          At no time did we ever see the executive secretary lust after that huge check. No episode shows him trying to wash the check and write his own name in the recipient’s blank. No, this servant of the greater giver was obviously well compensated. I find that proverbial to our own situation. We have a great benefactor and He has given huge sums into our hand for distribution. We must not lust after it ourselves or think any of it belongs to us. Are we not adequately compensated? Does not a constant flow of resources enter our hand?

Look around you and discover needs. You may not think yourself to be rich until you identify others nearby with less. The idea is not to make you responsible for their debts but to make you responsive to their suffering. “Withhold not good – when it is in the power of thine hand!”

Dear Lord, let me be a blessing to someone else today. AMEN